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Here are a few photos taken by us over the
years which should give you a flavour of the area around Al-Queria
cottage, the traditions and fiestas of the local people.
We have also included our photos of the impressive
monuments and buildings in the nearby cities which can only
really be done justice by a sightseeing visit when you are
on holiday in Spain.
As stunning as the great heritage sites are,
there are some equally interesting local places and buildings
which reflect the history of this region and can be easily
reached from our self catering , holiday cottage.
Andalus barrios which really show how the
old settlements were constructed on Arabic lines with narrow,
twisting streets giving plenty of shade and defence opportunities,
hill forts and castles which controlled the surrounding land
and strategic points, ermitas and churches to support the
local people in their faith which still provides a structure
to today's life.
Most villages have a "cofradia" or
brotherhood, attached to the church and these brotherhoods
not only organise the many religious processions and fiestas
but also give help and support to the local people.
Some of the fiestas are grand affairs which
involve the whole town or village whilst others are just very
local to the chapel or church and celebrated in a quieter
way.
Ferias or fairs, are held at various times
of the year, usually in support of a saint's day and these
can be very lively with music and sideshows going on until
the early hours. The locals have centuries of practice at
staying up to enjoy the fairs and newcomers and visitors have
to stretch their stamina levels just to keep up....
The countryside surrounding Al-Queria self
catering holiday cottage is given over almost exclusively
to olive farming. These tough trees need little water, can
grow in the poorest of soil, survive storms, snow, frosts
and extreme heat and still give steadilty increasing crops
over their considerable lifespan.
As most of the land here is mountainous, the
trees grow in steep plantations and are tended by hand or
machinery. The crop is picked between December and March and
taken to the olive sorting stations, mills or co-operatives
where it is processed into the best olive oil. In recent years,
many mills and co-operatives have attained "Denominacion
de Origen" for their oils, some of which are the finest
in the world.
Rural life around Al-Queria cottage is reliant
on olive farming and most people are either full-time farmers
or have other jobs and just tend their olive trees at the
weekend.
Our own olive trees are looked after by a local
couple, Domingo and Loli, who are full-time farmers and still
care for our land in the quiet, traditional way, by hand.
They put in a tremendous amount of hard work
in return for the annual crop and we get some olive oil and
a lot of firewood in exchange.
This is a good deal for us as it keeps our
land tended properly, the trees producing their crop, two
of our neighbours provided with a bit of extra income and
it allows us a lot more time to look after our guests...
We even get to sit out in the sunshine occasionally....
Before we started living and working at the
farm, we lived in a tiny house in the the old part of Ruté,
a pueblo about 30 minutes drive away.
Our neighbours were extremely friendly and
welcomed us without reservation. Some of their habits and
ways amused us at first but after a while we came to understand
just why local life followed the pattern that that it did.
Hot summer nights meant that you didn't go
to bed but stayed up until 3:00am talking in the street, just
to keep cool.
The following morning you would get up at 7:00am
and start your day before it got too hot.
At 2:00pm it was too hot to work so you stopped
for lunch for two or three hours and then, when the sun was
casting longer shadows, you finished your day's work up until
about 9:00pm.
The summertime habits are carried over into
the cooler months except that much more manual work is carried
out as it is physically more feasable.
In the mornings, the street was always alive
with women cleaning and sweeping outside their front doors
and we came to realise that this was not necessarily being
"house proud" but rather an opportunity to gossip
with the neighbours and anyone else that passed by.
Traditionally, local people get up, go to work
and then stop for breakfast at about 10:30am. Lunch is from
2:00pm onwards and a later meal is taken at about 10:00pm.
The pattern seems very logical as it allows one to digest
each meal and then to "work it off".
The renowned Spanish lifestyle as portrayed
by outsiders is in fact very hard working but with a twist...
The family is interwoven into Spanish life
so that many working people return home to their families
for lunch, they stay up with their children at night and visit
relatives houses on an almost daily basis.
One of the pleasures of living here is to have
lunch at a restaurant on a Sunday and observe the huge family
gatherings which include several generations all at one table,
all talking, all eating and all enjoying their own company.
All we can say is, "come and see it all
for yourself"
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